Whatever comes to mind!

September 16, 2010

A war of words has erupted between Singapore and Malaysia’s former leaders.

Ex-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that racism in Malaysia is a result of Singapore’s two-year membership there, and not because the island was “turfed out” as suggested by the Republic’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew recently.

Rebutting recent comments made by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Tun Dr Mahathir wrote on his blog, “With the background of Singapore’s activities in Malaysia in the short three (sic) years of its membership, can we really believe that if it had not been ‘turfed out’, race relations would be better in Malaysia?”

“While Kwan Yew (sic) talks about his belief that all ethnic communities should free themselves from the shackles of racial segregation in order to promote fairness and equality among races, he also said that ‘once we are by ourselves (out of Malaysia) the ‘Chinese become the majority’.”

His remarks were in response to comments Mr Lee made in an interview with The New York Times in which he compared how Singapore and Malaysia handle race relations.

Mr Lee had expressed that Malaysia would have achieved much of what Singapore had accomplished if it had accepted a multi-racial base, and described Malaysia as being in a “most unhappy situation”.

“I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore — had Malaysia accepted a multi-racial base for their society– much of what we’ve achieved in Singapore would have been achieved in Malaysia. But not as much because it’s a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation,” Mr Lee said in the NYT interview, referring to Tunku Abdul Rahman.

The 85-year-old Dr Mahathir rejected the view, claiming it was “not supported by facts of history”.

“Before Singapore joined the Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia, there was less racial politics in the Federation of Malaysia,” he wrote.

Dr Mahathir claimed that after Singapore became a part of Malaysia in 1963, Mr Lee reneged on a promise that the People’s Action Party (PAP) would not participate in Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak politics and attempted to displace the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in the Alliance by appealing to Chinese sentiments in the Peninsular.

“Of course the slogan was ‘Malaysian Malaysia’, which implied that the Chinese were not having equal rights with Malays. If this appeal to Chinese sentiments against the Malays was not racial, I do not know what is racial,” Dr Mahathir said.

Instead, he took aim at Singapore politics, claiming “whether the PAP admits it or not, the party has always been led and dominated by ethnic Chinese and has won elections principally because of Chinese votes. The others are not even icing on the cake,” he said.

“Amnesia is permissible, but trying to claim it is because Singapore had been ‘turfed out’ for the present racial politics in Malaysia is simply not supported by facts of history,” he added.

In Malaysia, opinions were mixed in response to both leaders’ remarks.

The Straits Times reported that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said on Monday that Mr Lee’s comments were “ill-informed and coloured with historical bias.”

September 14, 2010

Below is a recent article, published by a Singaporean tourist to China. His viewpoint about the Chinese is very typical in Singapore. It’s funny to know that Chinese-Singaporeans are originated from different parts of China at one point or another, and yet, they always think that they are the most refined people amongst all the Chinese.

In Singapore, I encounter more ill manners, rude and inconsiderate Singaporeans every day, from all walks of life, than any countries that I’ve travelled to. Despite the fact that their government is spending a million dollars every year to teach them manners, how to be gracious, to respect one another, it’s not really working. Without the cane from the government to whip them in line, the Singaporean’s behavior is no better than any unrefined Chinese that this tourist encountered in the streets of China, or, in any third world countries.

Speaking of loyalty to Singapore, I’m not sure if this guy or most of his fellow countrymen are willing to stay and fight for his country if it’s attacked. Unlike the U.S.A., which embraces anyone who is in despair, hungry, or needs shelter, Singapore only welcomes people with talent and money. Blue collar foreign workers are dispensable, being treated like animals, and rejected by their society. Most foreigners are having problem integrating into Singapore’s society because of discrimination against them. It’s not surprising that a lot of people are also using Singapore for an economic transit point. They will leave if the offers are better elsewhere.

Here is the article (my apologies for the fact that my blogging software could not reproduce the Chinese characters. Fortunately, the writer duplicated everything in English):

My name is Tommy Su Handa and I am a Singaporean teacher working in Shanghai. I have just visited the Expo 2010 earlier today (4 Sept 2010) and it is with a grave heart that I am penning this letter.

I was just an unsuspecting tourist queuing up (I was with a friend, who is a local Shandong Chinese and he is willing to vouch for the authenticity of my report of what has transpired) at the Uzbekistan Pavilion today when a Chinese man about fifty years of age shoved me aside with a rough swing of his hand in the queue and progressed to shove others in front of me and disappeared amidst the crowd – a classic case of queue-cutting.

But the man is too fast for me to intervene. However, his daughter (photo shown below) and wife shortly followed behind and the daughter proceeded to attempt to shove me aside with her hands. I clutched on the railing, blocking her way with my body and said sternly, "Please do not cut queue!", refusing to let her shove me aside like her father.

So the girl (consecutively to be known as ‘G’ in the report below) immediately said, "Why is this fatty [Chinese derogatory term] doing this? i.e. stopping her from cutting queue). Her mother (hereby to be known as ‘M’ in the report as follows) said, "Why is this ‘dead’ [derogatory term of added insult] fatty so serious? Will he die just by letting one person pass?" [hello? This is a family of three, apparently she was unable to count]

Indeed, I will not die letting a few people cut queue and pass by. But growing up in a country that does not have any natural resources has instilled in me an earnest respect for rules and laws and a topic of insult at all so I have no idea why they have started to attack the English standards of my fellow countrymen all of a sudden.

M: Yes! Singaporeans are miserly, stupid and inflexible; can’t even let others cut queue for a bit! You deserve to work hard without earning much. You’re all poor blokes but pretend to be so high and mighty! Singaporean men are not men at all. The whole country is good-for-nothing!

I: How can you insult my country? You started calling me names for no reason other than the fact that I refused to let you cut the queue. I tried to avoid further confrontation by keeping silent but now you insult my country? You were in the wrong first for attempting to cut queue, how can you bring yourself to make such a din now? Are you not embarrassed at the scene you are causing?

How did I refrain from using harsher language than this to protect my country? This is all thanks to my Singaporean upbringing and my personal dedication to my profession as a teacher. I constantly remind myself that I cannot afford to risk compromising my public conduct and decorum.

G: But you scolded China! So why can’t I insult your country?

I: When did I scold China? If I have been unhappy with China, how could I have worked so many years in this country?)

The mother started raising her voice, hoping to get the other Chinese people to support her.

M: Who said you didn’t scold China? We are Chinese, you scold China when you scold us!!! You scolded China!!! WE ARE CHINESE!!!

The girl looked around for support and tried to fuel her mother’s ridiculous accusation and inflame the general public.

G: Yes! What right do Singaporeans have to look down on us? What right do you have to scold us? What right do you have to scold China?

For the life of me, I really did not understand how the matter aggravated to my “looking down” on her and her country! Honestly, I firmly maintain that I have not in any way tried to aggravate the matter with any negative feelings or emotions. I merely wanted them to stop harassing me but they were bent on elevating the quarrel into a public dispute by fabricating lies and inciting anger in the other people in queue. Luckily the general public was very clear-minded and no one helped the unruly women to bully me. If I had said anything inappropriate, I would have been swarmed and probably attacked by the other Chinese – and I would have deserved that. The truth was I didn’t get swarmed nor yelled at by the general public: which was proof that I did not say anything that would undermine Singapore’s friendly ties with the general Chinese populace.

Sensing no support from the others, the mother was getting hysterical for no reason and started physically slapping me at the mid-riff with her fan, saying:

M: Yes! This is China, you are not welcome here! This is our country, roll back to your Singapore!

G: Bye bye, yeah, roll back home!

The mother continued to bodily slap me with her fan, until my local China friend (to be known as ‘F’) spoke up for me,

F: You are not Chinese people anymore! You have rushed at the first opportunity to renounce your Chinese citizenship to become Singaporean ‘flatulence’, what kind of Chinese are you? If you hate Singapore so much, why shamelessly beg for its PR-ship?

My friend really made a good point and a cat immediately caught the unruly woman’s tongue.

M: I, er, we… we’re there only for economic gains! Singaporeans are stupid! It is easy to make money there!

This is where I really feel that I have to speak to the leaders of my country: the women who were scolding me in public have no love for my country but have been approved PR-ship to come in to fleece money from my countrymen. They are here only for economic gains. How did they ever earn PR-ship from such base sentiments?

Sensing the disapproval and despise the other Chinese people were showering on them, the daughter tried to change the topic of attack:

G: (Ya, Singaporeans are so stupid and they still dare to scold China!)

I: When ever did I scold the Chinese people and China? Look at the other Chinese people queuing up now: these are civil people with a sense of decorum. If all the other Chinese people were queue-cutters like you, there would be unimaginable chaos for 13 billion people and the Expo wouldn’t have happened. You have given up your Chinese citizenship and you have no right to bring shame to China from your personal misconduct. China would not want citizens like you, and Singapore would never welcome unruly people like you! You have no proper reason or excuse to continue making this scene, when are you ever going to finish?

And so the mother, knowing that she has neither excuse nor reason, stooped to hurling a series of Chinese obscenities at me. With my last retort questioning her non-existent national alliance and shamelessly untrue pledge of loyalty, I felt I have made my case and I have refused to further respond to her and continued with the queuing despite the continued insults and taunts behind my back. Eventually we reached the entrance of the Uzbekistan Pavilion and I thought I could finally rid myself of this unruly pair behind me.

However, they suddenly proclaimed that they intend to follow us for the whole day in the Expo grounds so that they can continue to scold us! Now this is absolutely unprovoked bullying and an outright case of harassment bordering on felony.

My friend stared at disbelief at the extent of their bullying and said,

F: you can follow us and scold us all you want! We won’t care! If you think your unruly and unreasonable scolding can somehow even restore a tinge of your sense of shame…

I must say that my friend is quite capable of stumping her to silence for a while. But her daughter continued to verbally insult me and my country – and also bodily slap my back with her fan. The pair continued to harass us.

I could take the harassment no more, and so I took out my mobile phone and told them I would take pictures of their bullying and publish it on international social networks. They immediately started slapping my hand and mobile phone to stop me from taking pictures, which was why the photos taken were so grainy. They then retaliated by also taking pictures of us. I started to threaten them that I would call the local police if they do not stop harassing us. That was when they ran away from us.

My friend and I then proceeded to view the exhibits in the Uzbekistan pavilion, but the two women started to follow us, from a distance, with their cameras and persisted with their silent but nonetheless continued harassment from a distance. This went on for the next 30 minutes while we viewed the exhibits until I finally lost my control, walked up to them and yelled at them and their cameras,

I: You cut queues and yet you scold others! Now you continue to bully and harass us! You are ‘dirty’ queue-cutters! You are ‘dirty’ queue-cutters!

I deeply regret the slightly coloured insult I finally flung at them, to which they have no doubt recorded on their camera. But I am no saint, and I dare request to step forward anyone who could have put up with such persistent taunting and bullying, physically and psychologically, of one’s bodily person and country without coming to physical blows and resorting to more colourful vocabulary. The slightly coloured insult was childish, but was the meanest I ever had to be in my entire life in face of such unprovoked unruliness.

It is beyond the shadow of doubt that these two women have lived for some time in Singapore and have unquestionably been reminded and educated that their unruly ways of cutting queues, unprovoked taunting, persistent social bullying and harassment, and last but not least, the daughter’s total inability to communicate in simple English to save her life, are not socially acceptable in the Singapore community. They simply cannot function in Singapore and that has evidently caused them considerable stress.

I know for sure any self respecting Singaporean would openly request anyone who is cutting queue in Singapore to refrain from doing so – and the requests would be made politically correct to address the act of queue-cutting and would in no way be a personal attack. The chidings from my fellow Singaporeans, due to the women’s inability to comprehend simple English, must have definitely been wrongly misconstrued as “looking down on them” and had evoked grudge and malice.

Conveniently but inappropriately, they have chosen to unload all their grudge and malice on unsuspecting and innocent Singaporean tourists at the Expo grounds such as I. Their target was not specifically ME, but just their own twisted perception of Singaporeans! As a highly educated individual, how could I have not understood that? That was probably why I haven't punched the lights out of them for such barbaric bullying.

But I do worry: do the “Foreign Talents” recruited to my beloved Singapore really understand the basic common civility to integrate into the nation’s communities? If they harbour such grudge and malice to Singaporean citizens, why do they lust after our citizenship? What can they contribute positively to our nation if they pose such potentially hazardous social anomaly? I most certainly cannot imagine such unruly people to love and contribute to Singapore productively – and I do not see unruliness as a talent much needed by the nation. Moreover, I was shocked and aghast at the blatant lack of loyalty these new PRs have for my country.

Please understand that my intention for reporting this isolated case is by no means to cause a rift between China and Singapore. I respect China, have married a local Shanghainese woman, and have now a nine-month-old baby boy, testament of my love for this second home of mine. The greater general populace of the China has always warmed me on countless occasions of their willingness to work unconditionally and sacrifice unquestioningly to noble causes.

Here is one response to the above online letter:

Chinese are a whole lot of pragmatic, practical people. They are a hardy lot and can be found all over the world where there's money to be made with some of them even settling down for long term even in Africa and South America and overcome initial difficulties of strange culture and language. These type of people do contribute to the local economy as they add to the local economic statistics.

Today's Chinese are different from the past. They have a choice now, that is to stay or to leave their adopted countries. Spurred on by their booming economic opportunities in their motherland and sense of loyalty and pride, these first generation of emigrants do want to go back and contribute.

Although millions of young Chinese people dream of studying in America, the ones who actually get the opportunity don't necessarily want to stay in America after they graduate. In late 2008, the Chinese government launched an aggressive campaign to lure them back and is spending millions to entice accomplished investors, bankers, researchers and engineers to come home.

In the last two decades, an estimated 50,000 immigrants left the United States and returned to India and China. In the next five years, a projected100,000 more will make the return trip. A trickle is turning into a flood. Most of the present returnees are young, in their early 30s and nearly 90 percent had master’s or doctorate degrees.

Over back in Singapore, our government does not grant PRs or citizenship seemingly anyhow to applicants from China or to many other countries for this matter. Most of the ethnic Chinese PRs in Singapore hail from Malaysia. Many of them progress on to take up citizenship becoming first generation of Singaporeans in their family line.

Over the 10-year period to present, the number of Malaysia-born Chinese in Singapore (permanent residents and first generation Singapore citizens from Malaysia, combined) went up by 81,000, while that of China-born Chinese went up by just 13,000.

Hopefully, the new data may help correct a misperception on the ground.This whole idea that we are being overwhelmed by mainland Chinese has no basis. The numbers should tell us that many from China are here only as foreign workers and, as the Prime Minister has said, we have to distinguish these workers from new immigrants.

There are good and bad from each country. In my work and travels, most of these foreigners I have to deal with in here or overseas, come across to me as intelligent, well mannered and polite. Of course, there is always the minority. However, I must add that we ourselves are not saints either. C'est la vie!!

Books

Doug Ramsey: Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul DesmondThis is a great book! Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck formed the heart of one of the best all time jazz groups. Paul was the quintessential intellectual, white jazz musician. A talented writer, he never published anything. However author, Doug Ramsey has collected Paul's letters here. How ironic that now his writing in the form of letters to his father and ex-wife, among others, is finally published showing another window on the mind of this talented person.
A sideman, for the most part, his entire life, the Dave Brubeck Quartet might never have happened at all due to the fact that Paul had managed to offend Dave to the point where he never wanted to see him again. It had to do with a gig that Paul actually was the leader of. Paul wanted to take the summer off to play another gig, and Dave wanted Paul to let him take over the gig at the Band Box in Palo Alto, CA. Paul wouldn't let him and Dave, married with two children, proceeded to starve.
Due to an elaborate publicity campaign, when he realized the error of his ways, Paul managed to worm himself back into Dave's good graces. The rest is history.
This book is remarkable for the insight it gives into a working jazz musician's mind, wonderful pictures and interviews with the significant figures in Paul's life. Author Ramsey, not a remarkable penman himself, has nevertheless done a magnificent job of assembling all these various materials. Unlike a lot of jazz authors, he doesn't overly idolize his subject with the result that you get the feeling that you have met a real person and not a idealized version. That's high praise indeed for any biographer. (*****)